


The Same But Different

by clockworkowenge



Category: Doctor Who (2005), Sarah Jane Adventures, Torchwood
Genre: Action/Adventure, Cameos, Canon LGBTQ Character, Developing Friendships, Episode Fix-It: s04e13 Journey's End, F/F, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Melody Pond's Childhood, Metacrisis Tenth Doctor is The Doctor, Parents Amy Pond/Rory Williams, Parents Metacrisis Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler, The Doctor Loves Rose Tyler, Time Shenanigans, Torchwood One, Torchwood Three, Torchwood Two, Travelling in the TARDIS (Doctor Who), Wanderlust
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-17
Updated: 2021-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-26 03:00:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30099264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clockworkowenge/pseuds/clockworkowenge
Summary: As the TARDIS dematerialised out of view, Rose Tyler felt a deeply rooted pang in her chest that she hadn't felt since the last time she had set foot on this cursed beach in Norway. The freezing wind chilled her to the bone, her leather jacket doing nothing to protect her from the cold. The feeling of loneliness fell over her like a weight tying itself around her neck. As soon as that terrible burden had appeared, however, it was gone when she felt the warmth of a hand slipping into hers and fingers twining through her own.A new adventure begins for Rose and The Doctor as they begin a life together on Pete's World. They have several months before their piece of TARDIS coral grows to full size but domesticity on the slow path isn't as mundane as it seems and they have plenty to keep them busy while they wait.
Relationships: Amy Pond/Rory Williams, Clara Oswin Oswald/Bill Potts, Clara Oswin Oswald/Danny Pink, Gwen Cooper/Rhys Williams, Jackie Tyler/Pete Tyler (Pete's World), Jake Simmonds/Original Character(s), Metacrisis Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler, Owen Harper/Ianto Jones, Ross Jenkins/Toshiko Sato
Kudos: 7





	The Same But Different

As the TARDIS dematerialised out of view, Rose Tyler felt a deeply rooted pang in her chest that she hadn't felt since the last time she had set foot on this cursed beach in Norway. The freezing wind chilled her to the bone, her leather jacket doing nothing to protect her from the cold. The feeling of loneliness fell over her like a weight tying itself around her neck. As soon as that terrible burden had appeared, however, it was gone when she felt the warmth of a hand slipping into hers and fingers twining through her own.

A turn of her head later and she's drowning in pools of ancient chocolate brown, filled to the brim with unspoken knowledge of centuries long forgotten to the universe she was no longer a part of; timeless wisdom unknown to the one they both now called home. Her Doctor, the same Doctor but different. She didn't know how altered he was, besides the obvious lack of a spare heart, but when did she ever know anything after the Time Lord changed? She hadn't known him at all after she'd first experienced him regenerate and she had felt that she knew even less as she had watched him halt his own regeneration to siphon the energy into his hand and halt the process to avoid the transformation. Was this really any different?

"You alright?" he asked, his gaze firmly transfixed on her face as he took in he studied her expression, taking in every facet of information that he could draw from her. She knew this look well and she could practically see the gears turning behind his eyes as she stared right back into then, only just daring to quirk the corners of her lips upwards in a half-smile. Rose knew she must look unsure of herself because... well, she was. How could she not be? She was only human. Then again, she supposed, so was he now.

"Oh, I'm always alright." she replied, echoing words that he had told her long ago as her smile grew in intensity. It only grew wider when The Doctor grinned back as he recognised the phrase, her teeth visible between her lips, tongue peeking through the gap of her very slight overbite. "So... I think we need to revisit that conversation about mortgages."

The sound that spilled from his mouth was somewhere between a laugh and a groan, gravelly and sharp but oh so him and Rose couldn't help but giggle melodically in response as she bumped his shoulder with hers gently; a small gesture of reassurance and encouragement for a man that was quite clearly still adjusting to the idea of a life on the slow path. She knew it would be a challenge, one with many obstacles, but he was The Doctor and he could survive anything. All he had to do was make a plan and she knew that she'd follow him to the ends of the earth. All he needed to do was start running and she's be swept along with her hand tightly clasped to his.

Before the Time-Lord could reply to her comment, Jackie's voice rang out over the whooshing sound of the bracing wind flying past her ears. Oh yeah, her mum was still there. "As nice as all this is, it's bloody freezing and my phone has no signal on this rotten flaming beach." the Tyler matriarch complained obstinantly, hands firmly placed on her hips in a defiant stance as she shifted her gaze between her daughter and the man who she had come to love in spite of his proclivity for reckless endangerment of said daughter. "So, if you don't mind, can we get a move on and go up to the harbour for a cuppa while I ring your father? He'll have to send us one of the Torchwood private zeppelins or we won't be home 'til bloody Christmas."

Rolling her eyes, Rose shook her head at her mother's abrasive tone. God knows she could make complaining an Olympic sport if she tried and the younger Tyler absolutely did not want to give her cantankerous mother any more of a reason to go off on one. "Yeah, we can go to that cafè on the promenade. You know the one." the peroxide blonde suggested, tugging on The Doctor's hand to coax him into action as she made her way over the sand so as to get as far away from Bad Wolf Bay as possible.

Jackie nodded, brows furrowing minutely as she remembered the last time they'd sat in that little coffee shop. It had been Rose, Pete, Mickey and a three-months-pregnant and very grumpy Jackie crowded around a table that was really only meant for two, nursing hot drinks to keep their hands warm but not having the stomach to drink them as they silently mulled over the idea that they would never see The Doctor again. Rose had been beside herself with anguished grief and Jackie had been completely unable to help her out of that feeling. She could only imagine it had been how she had felt after her first Pete Tyler had died; an ache so hollow that it echoed a dead emptiness that rang so deafeningly in her head that she thought it might cause her mind to rupture.

Still, all of that was over now and The Doctor was here with them, with Rose, as she had come to know it was meant to be. "Yeah. We'll have a nice cuppa and everything will feel so much better. You'd better pocket that cactus though, mister. This world might be topsy turvy but people here still know madness when they see it." she barbed, her eyes momentarily fixing onto the chunk of TARDIS coral in the man's free hand with a confused and exasperated expression before swanning off ahead of them to try and locate an area with phone signal.

The Doctor feebly called out to Jackie in protest of her assessment, stammering slightly as he realised that he had lost her attention. "I-It's... It's not a cactus." He sighed in defeat as he watched the mother of the woman he loved march away, eyes glued to the screen of her mobile phone.

Rose can't help but snicker in amusement at the altercation, patting her lover's arm gently in silent understanding. "Come on you. We've got all the time in the world to explain it to her. Right now, we need to get somewhere warm before we catch our deaths. That's a real possibility for you now, right? Can't have you getting hypothermic on your first day as a stupid ape, can we?"

Scoffing indignantly at the insinuation as he deposited the coral into the pocket of his jacket, The Doctor allowed himself to be dragged along by the hand, all the while grumbling under his breath about the biological intricacies of his new but 'still superior' physiology that Rose felt was best to just tune out for now. If she let him get started, she knew he'd be talking from now until midnight.

***~***

Two cups of tea for Rose and Jackie, a sickeningly sweet hot chocolate for The Doctor and five hours of aimlessly wondering the promenade later and they had finally made it aboard the zeppelin that Pete had ordered to retrieve them. Of course, instead of simply sitting and watching an in-flight movie on the flat screen like a regular Joe, The Doctor couldn't help himself and instead spent the whole flight wandering up and down the private suite of the aircraft as he inspected every inch of the machinery while Rose pinched the bridge of her nose and Jackie huffed and puffed at her to get him to sit down.

It had been an interesting journey, to say the least, and they were both glad when they landed in London another three hours later, dragging the excitable alien off of the zeppelin and through the airbase to the Torchwood Institute main building. If only they'd thought their destination through beforehand, they might've chosen a different place to land. After all, The Doctor was like a child in a toy store when surrounded by extraterrestrial technology and he was completely incapable of keeping his hands to himself when he really should be. There had been three separate occasions where he'd ended up being scolded by an armed security officer on the way up to Pete's office and Rose was seriously beginning to consider a change in career, if only to avoid this kind of thing becoming a regular occurrence once again.

The three of them now sat scattered around the large office space, joined by the additions of Pete and Tony Tyler. The five of them remained quiet in the beginning while Rose and Pete worked to fill out an incident report that explained where Mickey had gone, as the former mechanic and tech-whizz had opted to stay behind while they returned. The mood turned slightly sombre while Rose quietly ran through her ex-boyfriend's decision with her father, helped along by her mother while The Doctor sat cross-legged on the floor with Tony, making childish car noises as the two of them pushed the three-year-old's Hot Wheels around the carpet in intricate pathways.

Everything became much calmer after that as the five of them simply enjoyed a pleasant catch-up, glad that the work was finally done and there was no more imminent threat posed to the multiverse by maniacal evil geniuses or sub-atomic death machines. The sounds of cars driving through the streets twenty floors below were the only sounds that could be heard over the ambience of quiet voices filling each other in on the last few years. Rose smiled softly as she rested her head on The Doctor's shoulder, content to watch her parents and younger brother chat animatedly together about the drawing that Tony had made at nursery that day. It was so domestic that it made her heart ache warmly in her chest. This had been the life she'd dreamed of back before Canary Wharf, despite knowing at the time that a life like that was never on the cards for them.

_'Well, look at us now.'_ she thought smugly, pitying her younger self for not knowing what she did now.

"This is nice." she said breathily, a contented sigh blowing through her words as she nuzzled her cheek against the smooth fabric of her lover's suit jacket. The blue was different to the brown pinstripes that she was so used to seeing him in, as was the very un-Doctor-like black v-neck that he wore beneath it, but the ensemble still paid homage to the style he had adopted that first Christmas they'd spent together. All in all, it felt both familiar and yet completely brand new. However, despite her initial doubts on the beach in Norway, she found that she didn't feel conflicted or in any way uncomfortable with that unknown aspect. Even if he was different, he was still him. He'd always be her Doctor. He seemed to be in full agreement with her about that too, if the soft kiss that he placed to her temple was anything to go by, his arm tightening a little around her waist in response.

He didn't say anything for a few more minutes, content to just live in the moment for what must have been the first time in his life. However, even with this newfound sense of calm, he was still The Doctor and he just couldn't handle not speaking for too long. "So, you mentioned a mortgage? What kind were you thinking? Fixed-rate mortgage, interest-only mortgage, ARM...?" he asked in that excitable way that only he could when talking about such a boring subject.

Rose had to laugh, the abruptness of the sudden rise in volume as her melody heartily boomed off the walls and windows startling the middle-aged couple and the three-year-old boy out of their own conversation to look their way. Pete looked startled, Tony looked confused but Jackie smiled warmly at the sight and sound of her daughter laughing. It had been so long since she'd seen her little girl this care-free.

"Look at her, Pete. This is what I was telling you about. This is why I talked you into helping her built that cannon thingy. Only he can bring that laugh out of her. Without him, she just doesn't function properly." she murmured quietly as she leaned into her husband's side, sighing happily as his arm snaked around her shoulder. "I think it's the same for him too. He might think I'm clueless to how his brain works, what with all of his space babble and alien whatsits but I see it in him. Always have. The only thing that takes the tension out of his shoulders is when my Rose smiles at him. It's like every bad feeling he's ever felt just melts away for those few moments. He probably thinks he won't handle staying put but I think he ran around the universe to escape the fact that he never felt what it was like to be the centre of someone's world but, when he's with her, I think he finally feels it."

Pete had to admit he was somewhat clueless to the enigma that was The Doctor. In total, he'd known him all of five minutes. He'd only really known Rose for three years and a few months, for that matter. However, he wasn't blind. He could see the easiness there between the mysterious extraterrestrial man and the girl who both was and wasn't his daughter. Their connection was as visible as a lightning storm on a cloudless night and he found himself smiling at the sight. They reminded him a bit of himself and Jackie back in the day, at a point before their separate universes split onto different paths, in a time that both of them could recall the exact same way. It had felt like gravity kept them circling each other, never again to be away from the other's orbit. He could see that same tether holding Rose to The Doctor and vice versa. Pete had to admit that even he could see the beauty in that. "Well then I'm glad you talked me into it, love." he muttered back with a smile.

Tony simply watched his big sister and her funny friend cuddle together and laugh, not really understanding anything that either of the grown-up pairs were talking about. He was just happy to see Rosie's smile grow so wide. He couldn't remember a time he'd seen her smile so big. It made him happy. He liked The Doctor even more now than he had when they were playing 'Hot Wheels'. He made Rosie happy and that really was very good; like a prince charming. He wondered silently if this was happily ever after.

Little did the little boy know that his innocent childlike thought was being reflected in the minds of all four adults in the room, at least in one way or another.


End file.
